The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-03-11

seems to contradict the popular belief
that first children are less hardy than
those who follow them. Yet this no.
ton prevails in racing stables, where
''tirstlings' are not depended upon for
great endurance on the track. But
what Is of more value is that this phys
iolOgist found the centenarians, with
out exception, to be persons Of spare
build, which may be a good suggestion
to the American Legion of Honor, al
though l could name many cOrpulent
Brooklyn citizens who are likely to
outlive any "Barebones' in our midst
But Prof. Humphrey says of these
happy veterans, that govt and rheuma-
tism were, as rule, absent at
seems says the professor, ''that the
frame which is destined for great age
needs no such prophylactics, and en-
genders none of the peceant humors
for which the finger joints, as in govt,
may find vent" OF the fifty-twO
aged persons whom he had investi-
gated, twenty-four only were tooth
less, the average number of teeth in
these centenarians being four to five.
Long sleep was noticeable in their lat
ter days, the average being about nine
hours.
There is one precept or motto of
longevity which is superior to all the
rigid prescriptions of the doctors. 1t
is that zone mans meat is another
mans poison and that every human
being who thinks life worth living
should drink and eat the things that he
finds agree with him. I know suf-
ferer from dyspepia-''the bag Dys-
pepsia' of Carlysle, whom James An
thOny Froude calls without exception
the greatest genius of the century,
who can digest two ounces of new
cheese, two or three slices of new
bread, a glass of vinegar bitters
at midnight, and retire again with
two or three dOughnuts on his
chest. If did that / would have to be
moved to Flatbush, for l should, unlike
the jailer at Philippi, do myself a harm.
Yet rules of diet are good and while
one big-brained man can stomach such
dinner as the Gar of all the Russias,
Peter the Great, ate in England before
he babe a last farewell to WOolwich
dOck-yard, the average human diges-
ton has its ''statute of limitations. 1t
is said by some recent vitalists, whose
names escape my memory and who have
probably died ere this of their own the
cries of longevity, that no healthy per-
son ever died a natural death, because
death is always the result of a violation
of sanitary laws. But what is sanitary
law and what is the capacity of the hu-
man brain and body, whether for sleep,
for eating, for drinking OF for work,
either physical or mental?
DR.. Forbes WinslOw, the great Lon.
don expert on insanity, has said that
insomnia did more than any other ner-
vOUs trouble to people the lunatic asy-
lums and the graveyards of England.
On the other hand, men like ''IngOlds-
by Barham, Bishop Copleston, Theo-
dore Hook, Tom Moore and host of
other men of genius and learning hated
bedtime, abhOrTed the mental vacuum of
feather-bed and pillow and sat up
studying or writing or playing rubbers
of whist at their club until the watch
man voice called "What of the night?"
and they walked hOmeward in a non
geometrical manner, what time, like
Tennyson's sailor boy, they ''whistled
to the morning star"
And what is true of sleep is true of
diet. Americans keep their children
up till ten or eleven at night, but five
hundred years ago their ancestors i'll
England, even the stately DANES and
lords of high degree ate their breakfast
with the rising sun, their heavy dinners
at eleven a. m. and by eight in the
evening were all tucked up in slumber
The experience of all civilized coun-
tries seems to prove that, as to classes
and masses there is very little differ
ence. The poor may die of starvation
while the rich die of excess. Dives
may catch his death of cold in spite of
his purple and fine linen, or 90 off
suddenly through too much turtle and
too many sweetbreads, while Lazarus
may be sheltered by the wall, warmed
by the kindly dogs, and get no peri
UOIlJlS IIlIOuSH hlDDllIS HIS SIdIC crust
of very dry bread.
Moreover, the conditions of vitality
are very different from what many ma
terialists seem to think. The soul or
mind is the electric light of its inferior
partner, the body. Pneuma, not Soma,
is the head of the firm. John Bunyan
wrote his Pilgrim Progress" one of
the most inspired books ever written IN
the English language, behind the bars
of Bedford Goal. Sir Walter Raleigh
began his History of the World" in
the gloomy wards of the Tower of Lon
don, before he wished his Bessie
Throckmorton goodbye and laid his
noble head beneath the axe of the
headsman. Even John Calvin was the
victim in his last years of nine diseases,
each of which would have sufficed to
kill anybody but the fatalist theologian
who formulated his creed in the words
"Decretum horrible fateor'-''I &C
knowledge the horrible decree. -
Brooklyn Eagle.
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